EDITORIAL: Project Veritas’ Board Members Seem Bent on Bankrupting It. UPDATE- Robert Barnes & Viva Frei Blast PV Board!
UPDATE - Famed lawyers Viva Frei and Robert Barnes have a similar take as our editorial. They say as we do that the PV bord lied and will get sued into oblivion.
Project Veritas (PV) is a 501c3/c4 non-profit organization that does muckraker journalism for social welfare. Because they are a non-profit, they have a board and have to follow certain IRS rules in order to maintain a tax-exempt status. Donations to Project Veritas can be tax-exempt.
The behavior of the PV board that voted to remove James O’Keefe as CEO seems bent on bankrupting the organization. Their outrageous behavior and evidence trail they have left behind shows that they are not seriously trying to protect their own actions or seriously demonstrate that their actions have been in good faith.
The opening salvo of accusations the board made against James are silly on their face. James stole a sandwich. James is hard to work for. Sometimes he hurt people’s feelings.
You cannot make this stuff up.
In the video that was released with James’ final briefing to PV employees it was revealed that members of the board sent a text message to an employee suggesting if they can be against “JO” they can get a raise. One board member communicated with a PV member that if James was removed people would not have to know. They accused James of spending $12,600 dollars of PV funds on his wedding - James is not married. The board ordered James to go on paid leave with no contact to staff and donors and while James was gone the board told staff that James was ghosting them.
The board voted 3-2 to remove James as CEO five days before they put out a statement saying that he was still CEO.
When the backlash from the public and the donors got hot, the board put out this misleading tweet to get people to calm down:
Misleading the public is not the kind of good faith behavior of an organization whose reputation is built on the promise they will never lie to their audience.
The next act of…well what else can you call it… gaslighting by the PV board was to release a statement accusing James O’Keefe of financial malfeasance. This is almost certain to get them sued.
Among O’Keefe’s acts of alleged malfeasance is spending $150,000 in travel expenses for what appears to be the use of the “Uber Black” service. Uber Black, among other things, have ultra professional drivers that go through special background checks.
How many times have you ordered an Uber driver just to have them cancel on you or be late or otherwise not show up? This is not likely to happen with the Uber Black service. Also, James is a highly controversial figure who is threatened by wealthy and powerful people. As a matter of personal safety, it is obvious why such a service as Uber Black is a prudent precaution.
According to O’Keefe’s video briefing the minutes of the board accused James of abusing travel expenses when seeing donors and that “The IRS would like it better if he used Zoom.” Seriously? If you are going to ask a donor for a half a million-dollar check, are you just going to phone it in? The board cannot deny that James has been very successful at raising funds, raising $22 million in the last reported year.
The PV board’s statement is very difficult to take seriously. James is almost certain to sue as are a group of donors. The money PV has left will likely be eaten up by attorney’s fees.
The board is behaving as if it is intentionally working to bankrupt Project Veritas. Assuming the above is true and the trail of evidence the board has left is as brazen as it appears, could they have done anything different to virtually ensure such an outcome?
Now who could be behind it...and does it rhyme with Kizer?
What do you think the odds are of the New York charity frauds bureau actually going after the board members of Project Veritas. The authorities in New York hate James and PV. There is little chance the “woke” deranged Attorney General of New York is going to investigate the board. If anything, they will accept the board’s rather silly allegations on their face and go after James.
Will James sue to regain control of PV or will he start anew? Only time will tell. We wish him well.